Ahead of his long awaited Australian debut, the American legend talks Bach, Beethoven and being a friend of Horrowitz,

We’re very much looking forward to your visit to Australia. It’s your first time I believe?

Thank you, me too. And yes, it is.

Is there any reason why you’ve taken so long to get round to coming?

I don’t really know. There was a while when I couldn’t play – my schedule was turned upside down. And it’s very far away so it had to coincide with the tour to the Far East. I don’t know, but it’s happened now.

For your Australian program you’re playing some Bach, one of the French Suites, is there a particular reason why you chose number four?

Well I wanted it to contrast with the Appassionata sonata. And since I recorded the French Suites this summer, it had to be a French Suite I thought. The fourth is very happy – the last movement is a kind of hunting song of some kind – and I thought with the Appassionata right after, which is not at all a happy piece (in fact the complete opposite), I thought it would make a nice contrast.

Murray Perahia